Passion alone ignites in us the embers of creativity, the light of astonishment, guides us on the path to the madness of ideas, and fills us with the desire to navigate the depths of life in its entirety.
The passion that, throughout our lives, we continue to seek a path to, whether we lose our way or it loses its way with us. It is the thing we inquire about first every December as we search for the gathering of our scattered selves and the conclusions of things related to us.
This December, things seem foggy, a year summarized by war, starting with the Russia-Ukraine war and ending with the Israeli aggression on Gaza. In the midst of it all, we reassessed our priorities.
Has stagnation and fatigue affected the things we have been passionate about throughout our lives, like football, due to these events?
The Football Alternative No Longer Serves a Purpose
A stadium surrounded by stands and walls, with a field perfectly set up to mimic a miniature model of war. This is how the idea of different sports arose in its early stages, as a legitimate alternative to war, replacing a bloody battle between two armies vying for victory.
Football has practised this role since its inception. Football is a refined ritual of war, where players are the city or nation's sword. In the field, there are towers and banners resembling castles, as well as deep and wide spaces around the field. In the middle, a white line separates the contested territories. At each end stands the goal that will be bombarded with flying balls.
Football did not escape the horrors of war but lived through difficult years during the world wars, with sports activities halted in most countries during World War I and II. Worse yet, it was sometimes used as part of political systems' plans in wars.
However, most of the time, it played its role as an alternative to war. With the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the Israeli aggression on Gaza, at a time when the world thought the era of military wars had passed, football and sports were struck down, and we are faced with the question of whether the blood of the innocent still spills. What is the purpose of football and others?
Russia and Ukraine: In War, Identity Is the Only Existence
In his book 'The Idea of Justice,' the professor of economics and political science at Harvard University, Amartya Sen, talks about how identity can be a source of wealth and warmth, as well as a source of violence and intimidation. In the latter case, it is the main cause behind human conflicts since the dawn of history.
Sports in general, and football in particular, serve as a legitimate alternative to human identity conflicts, a arena where historical divisions that have shaped the memory of individuals and societies can be contested through fair and just athletic competition.
The Russian-Ukrainian war, according to political experts, was based on this conflict of identity, which Russia used to justify its military actions, and Ukraine also used to justify its right to resist.
The Russian war on Ukraine caused several damages, not limited to political and economic levels but also extending to sports. Everyone tried to pressure Russia through sports to alleviate the burdens on Ukraine.
Within a few days after the Russian war on Ukraine, all international governing bodies for sports, led by the International Olympic Committee and various international sports federations, lost their grip on their global sports governance. These bodies, which call for keeping politics out of sports and take strict positions against those who violate that, exploited a sports event to convey specific messages or support a political or national cause. Article 50 of the Olympic Charter prohibits athletes from taking a political stance in the field.
In addition to the sanctions imposed on the Russian side in sports, such as excluding the Russian team from participating in the 2022 Qatar World Cup and suspending Russia's participation in Olympic competitions, football and its stadiums were colored with politics and war news, overshadowing football discussions for months.
Since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine, there has been significant support for Kyiv from all leagues, players, and clubs. For example, Barcelona's team displayed a banner that read 'Stop the War,' in addition to the English Premier League observing a minute of silence for the war victims.
Most players made sure to express support for Ukraine through impactful words on their various social media accounts. The discourse of war overshadowed football discourse for the first time in decades, followed by discussions about the economic crises caused by the war, also surfacing in football discussions for the first time in a long while.
Identity during times of war and economic crises, as Amartya Sen points out, is the right to life itself.
"Gaza Exposes the Hypocrisy of Football
The second major event that our lives, including football, were not exempt from, was the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza. In this aggression, the falseness of the entire football and sports community became evident.
While the world did not sit idly during the Russia-Ukraine war, nearly isolating Russia from sports by various organizations and sports federations, these entities did not even move with hesitant sanctions against the occupying state.
Except for the neutral stance of the English Football Association and some major clubs that preferred not to risk their overwhelming popularity in the Arab region and the Middle East in general, it is clear that the world of football, especially continental associations and international institutions that govern and set the standards and laws of the game, has no intention or even a fleeting idea of imposing even mild sanctions on football in the occupying state.
This can be explained by the influence of the Zionist media machine, which forces a newspaper the size of the Washington Post to change the title of the massacre at Al-Muadamiyah Hospital three times, so that the charged reader understands that the massacre occurred due to an unknown explosion, away from Israel's innocence. However, what is truly difficult to digest or explain is the double standard in dealing with athletes and celebrities who support Zionists and those who try to show their humanitarian sympathy for the genocide of innocent people in Gaza. To the extent that raising the Palestinian flag is classified as a crime, akin to supporting terrorism and anti-Semitism.
Despite all this censorship, football fields and social media platforms were filled with discussions about Palestine and the massacres committed by the occupation in Gaza, whether from the athletes themselves or even the fans in the stands and outside the stadiums.
Football has never been isolated from political conflicts throughout its history, but when it comes to killing children and bombing hospitals, we find it difficult to watch football matches. In times of war, we abandon our artificial hobbies to embrace our true identities, which may answer our question about the fading passion for football.
However, despite all of this, even if our passion for our favorite game diminishes, we all have a responsibility to make the platforms of the game a voice to support the innocent and convey the voice of the oppressed. Hoping that next December, the oppressors will be gone from every corner of the earth, the light of peace will prevail for everyone, and our passion for everything we love will return.
Well in my opinion I don't want football to have anything to do with politics but it's not possible and a perfect example was when the Negreira case was getting hot and Real Madrid and Barcelona were under each other troughs. Real Madrid came out and dropped a video about Barcelona supporting a Spanish dictator some years back and Barcelona also dropped a statement about Madrid being involved in some dirty politics. Football should be a game that unites people from different diaspora together to enjoy the game and not a tool for propaganda and politics.